Welcome to my card-making blog. For those of you new to my site, today I hope to inspire you a bit to try something new. This card was definitely a first for me. First time using The Ton's Fresh Cut Anemones (layered stamp), and first time using my Distress Oxide inks for stamping (I'd used them in other techniques, but not this one). Since I am not very familiar with anemones, I checked out images in Google Chrome. I came across a picture of several different colored anemones in a bed of foliage (like you were looking down at them). They were gorgeous, and I loved the green foliage background against the deep/bright colors of the flowers. So I now had an idea for my card. I figured I would need to watercolor the background and then stamp the actual leaves on top of that. I started with some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper and pulled out my MISTI as I figured I'd need to re-stamp the images several times to get a good, solid impression with the Distress Oxide Inks. That was an understatement!! I re-stamped 4 or 5 times the first layer, and even then it was not solid. So I decided to get out my paint brush and let the water smooth out the color. That it did nicely, but I lost some of the white lines intended to be there on that first layer. The available colors of the Oxides made it a bit hard with the color layering to achieve the colors I was envisioning. I ended up using more than 3 colors, as I needed more contrast. I ended up using a couple browns on the 3rd layer of the purple flowers to achieve the contrast I wanted. The orange flowers were the easiest (I changed my mid-tone color to one that was deeper in color, though) and the pink flower was difficult too, as I wanted it to stay very light. However, the Oxides don't have a lot of light pinks, so that flower I was not very satisfied with in the end.
Once the flower stamping was done, I created masks to go over each flower for the foliage stamping. Before I could stamp the foliage though, I needed to create a green background with Distress Inks and water coloring. The background needed to have a variety of greens loosely flowing into each other. I needed some deep, shadowy areas, a little light area, and a lot of mid-toned areas. A lot of the leaves were going to be fairly light, but with shadows. Well... Either my background was not dark enough, or the Twisted Citron Ox. ink is not as light as one would think. Either way, when I stamped the first layer of the leaves, you could barely see them. I re-stamped several times, but they just didn't show up. I went ahead and stamped the second layer in Lucky Clover, and that color just didn't look right. At this point, I'm beginning to think all my work would be lost on a botched background!!
I decide to change over to brown and to really bring out the shadows and the contrast around the leaves making them appear lighter. So I re-stamped first with Frayed Burlap, then Walnut Stain. It was beginning to look better! I decided to really darken the shadow areas between the leaves and painted on some Ground Espresso Distress Ink. Still not satisfied with the overall contrast, I looked around at my stash of markers and decided my Tombow's would work. I selected several colors to experiment with, but ended up primarily using a deep red and a medium brown. I went over the leaves, the shadows, even the flowers for more contrast and lining on the petals. I decided the stamen needed to sparkle a bit, so I used a Sakura Jelly Roll pen in Silver Star to make dots all along the area the stamen were. That made a big difference. My last Tombow marker was a light yellow that I used on the lightest parts of the leaves. I even stamped the stems in the background with Fossilized Amber Distress Ox. ink to help them show up more.
Satisfied with my flower panel, I die cut a white frame from MFTs, stamped silver dots onto it, then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. After adhering the frame, I adhered my panel to some deep purple card stock from Stampin' Up! I then die cut the 2 piece Hugs sentiment from Avery Elle. The Orange card stock pieces I die cut 3 times for a bit of dimension, then layered on some clear Wink of Stella. Lastly, I gathered some sequins and glued them into place. Another card saved!!
I learned a lot on this venture. It was fun experimenting and trying different color mediums. Don't be afraid to change up your coloring if it isn't working out. Lots of times a completely different color or product might just be what's needed. My next step had my Tombow's not worked was going to be colored pencils. Well, that's it for today. Won't post until I get my products list included below.
Happy crafting,
Jill
Supplies List:
The Ton Stamps: Fresh Cut Anemones
Stampin' Up!: Warmth and Wonder (for the dots)
Avery Elle: Simply Said Hugs Die
My Favorite Things Die-namics: Rectangle Frames
Distress Oxide Inks: Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans, Spiced Marmalade, Candied Apple, Fired Brick, Worn Lipstick, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, Fossilized Amber, Black Soot, Twisted Citron, Lucky Clover
Distress Inks: Forest Moss, Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Gathered Twigs, Ground Espresso
Tsukineko Encore! in Metallic Silver
Stampin' Up! Clear Embossing Powder
Tombow Dual Brush Pens: 027, 090, 847
Sakura Jelly Roll: Silver Star
Wink of Stella: Clear
Assorted Sequins
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